-The Hindu     States that increase minimum wage will have to bear extra cost from their own resources A committee set up by the Ministry of Rural Development to revise wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National rural employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has offered suggestions that are likely to iron out long-standing issues relating to disparity in earnings under the scheme. Currently, MGNREGA wages are lower than the minimum wages in several States, including in...

-The Hindu     To be able to deliver appropriate legal services to the rural and tribal communities, we need an alternative delivery system with a different model of legal service providers Delivery of legal services to the rich and the corporate class is organised not through individual lawyers but through a series of networked law firms. These firms employ hundreds of lawyers and domain experts all over the country to provide highly specialised...

-Down to Earth 'Kaam Mango Abhiyan' aims to popularise the ambitious flagship programme of the UPA government In the view of the declining demand of work under the ambitious Mahatma Gandhi National rural employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has launched a campaign "Kaam Mango Abhiyan", which literally means "ask for work". Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh launched the awareness campaign last week. To begin with, the focus will...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The United Progressive Alliance government has drawn up a Rs 75,000-crore action plan that seeks to provide self-employment opportunities to seven crore households in rural India over the next 10 years. The programme, which intends to impart training to rural households for semi-skilled and skilled jobs, may help UPA garner some extra votes in the general elections due next year. "The model has already been tested in...

-PTI In what would surely come as intriguing information for policy-makers, a Labour Ministry survey has found that with an increase in education levels in the country, the unemployment rate was also increasing across age groups. One out of every three persons in the age group 15 to 29 years who have completed at least their graduation has been found to be unemployed in the report on 'Youth employment- unemployment scenario, 2012-13'...